Scared myself silly at sea last night

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Thames 4 Blood

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I’m writing this 20 miles nth Cascais still on passage. Want to share... don’t want to tell wife / 1st mate.
So... last night while 15 miles off shore heading south Baiona to Cascais. Wind 25 knots from due west making about 7 knots. Weather is drizzly. Pitch dark. I’m wide awake about 3am keeping watch for shipping, dodging odd fishing boats using eyeball, AIS and radar ( radar not helping much due to rain and rough sea ).
As I look around the boat I see a green starboard nav light pass me in the opposite direction at a range ( and I am educated guessing ) of less than 50 meters. Whoever it was was alongside and passed before I had any idea they were even there... No radar signal at all even after I knew they were there. No AIS. I will never know if they even saw me.
No harm done but really put the willies up me.
 
A few years ago I met a sailor in Holyhead Harbour who single handedly had sailed a small boat from Canada, his method of making sure that his boat was noticed at night was to have as a masthead light the flashing strobe light which they fix on aircraft so obviously large boats would keep away as they would not know what it was.
(pardon the pun) Brilliant Idea.
 
Thames 4 Blood said:
I’m writing this 20 miles nth Cascais still on passage. Want to share... don’t want to tell wife / 1st mate.
So... last night while 15 miles off shore heading south Baiona to Cascais. Wind 25 knots from due west making about 7 knots. Weather is drizzly. Pitch dark. I’m wide awake about 3am keeping watch for shipping, dodging odd fishing boats using eyeball, AIS and radar ( radar not helping much due to rain and rough sea ).
As I look around the boat I see a green starboard nav light pass me in the opposite direction at a range ( and I am educated guessing ) of less than 50 meters. Whoever it was was alongside and passed before I had any idea they were even there... No radar signal at all even after I knew they were there. No AIS. I will never know if they even saw me.
No harm done but really put the willies up me.
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The failure of a tweeny yotty radar to pick up a small non-metallic target in a choppy sea is not surprising. Unless the other vessel's lights had just been switched on, there will have been either a lapse in your concentration, overtiredness, a failure to carefully scan the entire horizon every minute, or perhaps a problem with your night vision.

Most can be easily rectified though a revised watch-keeping system, which will almost certainly involve your wife.

As someone who is 100% entrusting her life to you as Ship's Master she has a 100% right to know what happened !!
 
Thames 4 Blood said:
I’m writing this 20 miles nth Cascais still on passage. Want to share... don’t want to tell wife / 1st mate.
So... last night while 15 miles off shore heading south Baiona to Cascais. Wind 25 knots from due west making about 7 knots. Weather is drizzly. Pitch dark. I’m wide awake about 3am keeping watch for shipping, dodging odd fishing boats using eyeball, AIS and radar ( radar not helping much due to rain and rough sea ).
As I look around the boat I see a green starboard nav light pass me in the opposite direction at a range ( and I am educated guessing ) of less than 50 meters. Whoever it was was alongside and passed before I had any idea they were even there... No radar signal at all even after I knew they were there. No AIS. I will never know if they even saw me.
No harm done but really put the willies up me.
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Fishing boat, spotted you at the last minute and put his lights on. I was in a similar situation a touch further south, midday, bright sun, had a scan every ten mins as did the admiral, both reading, looked up and a fishing boat was passing in front about 10mtrs away! where he came from I dont know. nowt on AIS and the radar hadnt picked him up as he was approaching. He completely ignored my dropped mouth!
 
macd said:
Indeed...if it makes sense that everyone should come up with their own idea of what constitutes an appropriate nav light.
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The very experienced yottie in PBO last month was advising on giving way and rules etc. His biggest advice was, broadly, get out of their way! Never mind the rules!
 
macd said:
Indeed...if it makes sense that everyone should come up with their own idea of what constitutes an appropriate nav light.
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In busy areas, where information from the lights is used to decide what action - if any - to take, that would be a Bad Thing. In less sparsely sailed areas, where the overriding desire is to be seen, "an it harm none, do what ye will" seems fine. As Ann Davison wrote in "My Ship is So Small" - I paraphrase - "I would much rather the watch on a big ship said 'What the hell is that?' than miss me altogether."
 
Good luck with your insurance claim, guys:
"Was the claimant displaying the prescribed lights when the loss occurred?"

There's nothing in colregs to stop anyone fitting a strobe. They can have disco lights and shine lasers into the heavens if it takes their fancy. But not in lieu of prescribed lights.

JD: 20 miles from Cascais scarcely qualifies as "a sparsely sailed area" (except to the NE).
 
Jeez, the guy had the right lights, he was awake, he was watching, he got a fright.

There really is is a lot of condescension on here sometimes.

And re the flashing strobe, good luck with the insurance claim? Cmon, if a flashing strobe catches the attention of a freighters bridge in the middle of the ocean, that is a very good thing! If he has a standard nav light which doesn't get noticed there will be no insurance claim at all. He will be at the bottom of the ocean.

There are rules and regs for reasons, but they should never get in the way of common sense or survival.

And scanning the horizon every minute? I don't believe anyone does that for an entire watch, period.
 
On a solo X-Channel crossing, about 10 miles north of Barfleur in good daytime Viz, I had a quick scan of the horizon before popping below for a "comfort break". When I came up, there was a huge container ship filling my view ahead, far too close for comfort. Despite my recent activity, I very nearly soiled myself. It's surprising how quickly they can come up at you at speed.

Contemporary opinion suggested that the vessel was proceeding from Le Havre towards the Casquets separation zone and gave what the watchkeeper considered an appropriate clearance, given my speed of ~ 5 knots.
 
macd said:
There's nothing in colregs to stop anyone fitting a strobe. They can have disco lights and shine lasers into the heavens if it takes their fancy. But not in lieu of prescribed lights.
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As can often be seen at the back of the big cruise ships ;)
 
steve yates said:
Jeez, the guy had the right lights, he was awake, he was watching, he got a fright.

There really is is a lot of condescension on here sometimes.

And re the flashing strobe, good luck with the insurance claim? Cmon, if a flashing strobe catches the attention of a freighters bridge in the middle of the ocean, that is a very good thing! If he has a standard nav light which doesn't get noticed there will be no insurance claim at all. He will be at the bottom of the ocean.

There are rules and regs for reasons, but they should never get in the way of common sense or survival.

And scanning the horizon every minute? I don't believe anyone does that for an entire watch, period.
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Oi! This is the holier than thou section. Gerroff:o
 
steve yates said:
Jeez, the guy had the right lights, he was awake, he was watching, he got a fright.

There really is is a lot of condescension on here sometimes.

And re the flashing strobe, good luck with the insurance claim? Cmon, if a flashing strobe catches the attention of a freighters bridge in the middle of the ocean, that is a very good thing! If he has a standard nav light which doesn't get noticed there will be no insurance claim at all. He will be at the bottom of the ocean.

There are rules and regs for reasons, but they should never get in the way of common sense or survival.

And scanning the horizon every minute? I don't believe anyone does that for an entire watch, period.
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This and this and this and this and (cont. p94)
 
As can often be seen at the back of the big cruise ships


As can be seen as this cruise ship passed me last year off the Isle of Man.

I challenge you to find the starboard light.
 

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I agree with the one who said keep out of the way and make sure you're seen. Take no notice of people talking of insurance claims - that's for wooses.
 
SteveGorst said:
As can often be seen at the back of the big cruise ships


As can be seen as this cruise ship passed me last year off the Isle of Man.

I challenge you to find the starboard light.
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Lol, geat pic, that's not taken back behind 112.5 degrees from the bridge is it?

If so, I have 3 possible candidates for the stern light ;)
 
dom said:
Lol, geat pic, that's not taken back behind 112.5 degrees from the bridge is it?

If so, I have 3 possible candidates for the stern light ;)
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We could have a spot-the-ball competition on this one! I'll go for the small round one 45 degrees SW of the aft masthead.

I am often surprised by how badly fishing boats show up on radar, for their size. Presumably their hull shape causes this.
 
Thames 4 Blood said:
As I look around the boat I see a green starboard nav light pass me in the opposite direction at a range ( and I am educated guessing ) of less than 50 meters. Whoever it was was alongside and passed before I had any idea they were even there... No radar signal at all even after I knew they were there. No AIS. I will never know if they even saw me.
No harm done but really put the willies up me.
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Rough sea with troughs and drizzle, just the setup for missing low level nav lights and some of us have had similar encounters. As a matter of interest, were you using tri-colour masthead or, low level lights?
 
A friend of mine told me the story of a yacht delivery she did some years ago. She was crossing Biscay at night, and it was clear and calm, but moonless. She heard an engine but could see nothing. The engine noise got louder and plainly closer. She fired a white flare and saw a completely unlit tug passing ahead of her, towing an equally unlit drogue. She turned away to avoid the tow, and despite her flare and calling "unknown tug" on channel 16 with her position no lights came on and the tug just motored away. Presumably it was on autopilot with nobody even on watch.
 
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